


En Garde

by skatzaa



Category: Original Work
Genre: Art, City Maps, Fantasy, Gen, Maps, Overeager Younger Brother is Going to Drive His Sister to an Early Grave, Taverns, Vaguely Fantasy Flavored
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:14:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27114524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skatzaa/pseuds/skatzaa
Summary: Kherra only wants to get a drink and flirt with the pretty woman behind the bar of the Misty Lantern. Jav has other plans.
Relationships: Consummate Duelist Who Always Duels Over Others' Honor & Their Long-Suffering Second, Original Female Character & Original Male Character
Comments: 4
Kudos: 13
Collections: Fic In A Box





	En Garde

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Shadaras](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadaras/gifts).



> Hello! Shadaras, I hope you enjoy.
> 
> I was so excited to see that you had requested maps, so I knew I had to roll one into a fic. This is the first city map that I've drawn from start to finish, so I definitely learned as I went, but I am very pleased with the end result. I hope you are too!
> 
> I'm terrible with titles and my girlfriend enabled me, so here we are.
> 
> The map/annotations might be a bit small on mobile, but you can click on the image and it will take you to a larger version! I've also linked an unannotated version of the map as an "inspired by" work, so you can check that out at the bottom of the fic. (Well, it should, if all goes well with reveals. Please let me know if it doesn't?)

Kherra stepped up to the bar of the Misty Lantern and flashed the barkeep a smile. She’d never been to this tavern before, nor this city, but every tavern in every city was, in the end, the same. Lean in a little (the tricky bit was not getting your sleeve sticky), let the loose collar of your shirt drape a bit more, smile at the bartender, and bam: instant service.

The barkeep of the Misty Lantern proved no different. She finished handing a pint to a man who looked every inch of the tavern regular and came right to Kherra, despite the two men trying to flag her attention down. Kherra didn’t react when the woman’s eyes dipped lower for a moment, other than to grin a little more when she looked back up. She liked this shirt a _lot,_ mostly because _other_ people tended to like it a lot.

The woman’s cheeks pinked prettily, but she rallied admirably.

“Welcome to the Misty Lantern, best tavern this side of the west road,” she said. Kherra didn’t doubt it; from what she’d seen of Zerenth so far, this side of the west road consisted mostly of cramped, rundown neighborhoods, narrow, winding streets, and the hulking warehouses that lined the river. In that context, the Misty Lantern was practically respectable. “What can I do you for?”

Kherra didn’t lean into the innuendo, because the woman was only doing her job, and she didn’t deserve to be harassed for it. She said, “I’ll take two pi—”

“I’ll have your honor for that!” a voice cried out behind her, rising above the general, low level din of a tavern at mid-day. “I challenge you to a duel.”

Kherra groaned and dropped her head to the bartop, all thoughts of sticky surfaces forgotten. She’d left him alone for less than a _minute._ For once, just _once,_ she’d like to walk into some tavern in some city and _actually_ get to drink something _before_ Jav started throwing his weight around.

She raised her head and gave the barkeep a smile—or what she hoped was a smile. 

“‘Scuse me,” she said, though it pained her to do so. “I need to go rescue an idiot.”

She turned and surveyed the tavern behind her. It was no more full than it had been when they’d walked in, which meant she was able to find Jav immediately. He was looming—as well as he could loom (i.e. not very) with his post-adolescent acne and his dark hair scruffy from a few weeks on the road—over a table full of sellswords, the barmaid standing behind him with her arms crossed. She looked incredibly unimpressed.

How, _how_ did her brother unerringly find the biggest asshole in the room and decide that yes, _that_ was the person he wanted to pick a fight with? _How?_

Kherra crossed to the table in four long strides, took the barmaid lightly by the elbow to move her out of the line of fire, and said, “What’s the problem, Jav?”

Jav didn’t take his eyes off the sellswords, his hand hovering dangerously close to the hilt of his own blade. He said, “They insulted the young lady.”

There were five of them, all big, mean-looking, and armed to the teeth. Kherra was good, but she wasn’t good enough to play the role of second, third, fourth, and fifth all by herself. The biggest, meanest looking one with the largest sword threw her head back and laughed, and the others followed suit. 

When she finished, she pretended to wipe a tear from her eye and smirked up at Jav, still comfortably seated at the table (where she would stay, if Kherra had her way). She said, “I think your friend could use a lesson in manners.”

The man to her left cracked a grin. It was not a nice grin. The sword at his back was long and broad—bigger than Kherra’s by virtue of the man being twice her size—and would crack Jav’s in half in an instant.

Kherra had been Jav’s second for a long time—which was the first item on the very long list of the disadvantages inherent to traveling with her hot-headed little brother—and one of the things she’d always been best at was coaxing out formal apologies and diverting any number of beings from breaking Jav over their knee without breaking a sweat. 

Something told her she wouldn’t manage it, this time.

Jav puffed up, and before she could slap a hand over his mouth he said, “The challenged names the time and the weapon.”

“Now,” the woman said. “Swords.”

“Excellent,” Jav responded, in the tone of a man who had absolutely zero sense of self preservation. Sternly, or as sternly as Jav could manage, he asked, “Your name?”

“Broslenn. Not that it’s any of your business,” Broslenn said. 

Jav drew up to his full height—a move that would have been more intimidating, were he built any sturdier than a sapling—and looked down his nose at her. “I look forward to righting this wrong.”

As they all shuffled out of the Misty Lantern and into the hazy sunlight of Zel— no, Zerenth, Kherra didn’t bother to look over her shoulder at the barkeep whose name she still hadn’t gotten, because this was honestly just embarrassing. 

* * *

Dalni sighed as she bent to pick up the discarded piece of parchment that had wedged itself in one of the crevices between the floorboards. It was one of the many, many things she’d been hounding Ishbel for ages to fix, before the Misty Lantern fell down around their ears, but her brother didn’t give a damn.

Her normal patrons couldn’t be said to be an especially tidy sort, but none of them were frivolous enough to waste good parchment. It was probably from one of the travelers that had passed through at some point that day; perhaps even that strange pair that had been here earlier in the week. The young man had been just as eager to start a fight today as he had been, but at least they had the common decency to take the duels outside. That couldn’t be said for all her patrons.

Dalni stood, groaning at the twinge from her back, and tried not to lament their swift departure from her tavern. She wouldn’t’ve minded seeing the woman for more than half a minute at a time, maybe even learning her name, but she’d stormed out after her traveling partner in the same fashion she had on her first visit, and they hadn’t returned. Most people didn’t stay long in Zerenth unless they were born here, so she wouldn’t hold out much hope for a third meeting.

As she made her way back to the bar to finish closing down for the night, she turned the parchment over in her hands. It was one of those cheaply made and slightly out of date maps of Zerenth that were mostly sold to travelers who wouldn’t know the difference. The key was usually left blank, so the seller could scribble down the most “relevant” cities and their directions in rough charcoal at the last moment; this one had Kretia, Tharyn, and Aqazar, which was a joke. Whoever bought it must’ve gotten it from one of the hacks down by the docks, because Aqazar was to the north, not the south, and was barely more than a farming village.

[ ](https://i.imgur.com/L2GyUvi.jpg)

There were some strange symbols sketched, seemingly at random across the city, but no other notes. 

Oh well. Perhaps the back was unmarked and still salvageable; Ishmel could always use more parchment—

Dalni flipped it over and paused. There was a list, with the same symbols preceding each entry on the list. At the top, someone had misspelt Zerenth, crossed it out, and written it again. Jav was a familiar name—was it possible that the strange pair that had been here twice now had dropped this?

She read the list over and laughed. At least someone—the same woman, Kherra, perhaps?—had a sense of humor. 

Dalni set the map on the shelf beneath the bar and continued to clean.

[ ](https://i.imgur.com/fXGudPp.png)

**Author's Note:**

> Did I accidentally spell my own city's name wrong? Yes. Does it add to the ~in universe~ vibe? ...Uh, sure. Yeah, lets go with that.
> 
> Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
